Yes, in a mere two weeks, Bilbo, Gandalf, and a crap-load of dwarves with rhyming names will FINALLY hit the big screen to tell their tale! I. CANNOT. WAIT. I’m reading the book right now and I really like it! Not as much, I gather, as the folks in New Zealand. They went all out for the red carpet premiere of The Hobbit.

One of the perks of working from home is that I’m able to the keep the TV/radio turned on so I can hear the news stories of the day in a continuous loop. (Seriously. After about an hour and a half, I’ve already heard every story twice.)

That means I also get to see stories that make me chuckle or, in one case, shoot water out my nose.

The boys over at Prank vs. Prank decided to join in on the Black Friday craziness by confusing shoppers. They wore Target’s signature red shirt and khaki pant uniforms, and then pretended to be employees. Observe the shenanigans:

2. Dog Imitates Baby

This video was on a constant loop this morning on the Today Show. Kathie Lee and Hoda cracked up about it. Honestly, yeah, a dog imitating a baby is cute…but after the first 30 seconds I’m ready to say: “Shut your pie holes!”

Yesterday whilst running errands, I was listing to NPR. After the world news, the host turned it over to the local chapter. I wish I had a DVR for my radio so I could record what the local anchor said and rewind it about a million times. As I heard the words that came out of her mouth, water literally came out my nose:

“A local Shawnee family is concerned for their escaped pet kangaroo. The kangaroo, known as Lucy Sparkles, escaped Thanksgiving morning after being spooked by visiting family members. The family says Sparkles is fairly docile and enjoys Cheetos….”

Seriously.

What’s a kangaroo doing in Oklahoma? And why did the woman on the radio feel the need to describe the kangaroo as looking like “a giant rabbit that hops on two legs”? I’m pretty sure we all know what a kangaroo looks like.

(Sidebar: I love that her name is Lucy Sparkles. Makes me think of another Sparkles. I wonder if Lucy is a pop-star back in her native Australia and came to Oklahoma to live “the simple life”? )

Hello! I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! I’ve been MIA the past few days because I was snow-bunny-in’ it up in Breckenridge, CO! (Don’t worry, I’ll have a post full of embarassing photos in a day or so.)

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving full of glutony and tense family dinners, topped off with saving $2.54 on a DVD during Black FridayThursday.

Today’s post spans three states. In each one, I found gloriously odd finds that I HAD to share with you. Some are funny, some are strange, and some just make you go, “What the what?!”

First up is something I found a few days before Thanksgiving whilst walking through my local Walmart, I saw something that caught my eye in the bread aisle.

Baby want carbs. Nom, nom, nom.

My first thought was: “OH MY GOSH! There’s a baby in there! I’m going to be on the news!” But then after noticing the baby was indeed made of plastic I thought: “Holy crap that’s one big, ugly doll.”

The next gem is courtesy of a truck stop in Salina, KS.

Stay classy, Salina.

What do good witches do it for?

While in Breckenridge, Huff the Hubs and I went walking around the town. It. was. precious. Seriously, place looked like one of the Christmas villages your granny used to put on her window sill. Adorbs.

Anyway, while we were walking, we stumbled upon this cute store named…wait for it…The Joy of Sox. How clever is that? Seriously, hot cocoa almost came out my nose. When we walked in, the first thing we saw were these:

Today is the day to talk about why we’re thankful, all the while trying to not pummel our annoying family members with a drumstick. Good luck with that.

For the past few weeks, Facebook statuses have been blowing up by people saying what they’re thankful for. I haven’t been doing it, mostly because after Day 5, my statuses would have been snarky and rude. And that’s not what Facebook is for.

It’s what this blog is for.

So, besides my husband, my family, my friends, and my Lord, there are many things I am thankful for. Some may seem unconventional, but hey, I’m glad I have these things in my life:

1. I’m thankful for no more political ads.

I am SO glad that the election has come and gone. I’m glad to have my commercial breaks be full of annoying car commercials and silly tampon ads if it means no more politicians vying for my vote.

“I think we should get rid of our TV.”

2. Internet memes.

Seriously. I have wasted enjoyed many hours of hilarity thanks to the various memes float out on the interwebs.

McKayla is not impressed with your Thanksgiving dinner.

3. Dollar Tree.

Where else can you walk in with $5 in your pocket and feel like you’re makin’ it rain, droppin’ dollas on book lights and candy. Or maybe this best-seller:

I have no words.

4. Earplugs.

Living in apartment can be nice. The rent is cheaper than a mortgage, there’s no lawn to mow, and you don’t have to worry about neighborhood dogs having their daily constitutional on your grass. But, its also noisy. VERY NOISY. Especially when you live in between some teeny-boppers and little kids. Sigh. Needless to say, I wear earplugs a lot. And they work SO well!

5. Sarcastic eCards.

How many of us have nearly cracked a rib from laughing so hard at these snarky cards? They say everything we want to say but are too afraid to say.

(In all seriousness, I am so blessed to have such an amazing and loving husband, family, and friends. I’ve got a great job and Huff the Hubs and I are almost out of student loan debt. We’re so blessed and so thankful for everything we have. I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving!)

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I needed to make something to take over to my Grammy’s, I thought I’d share with you folks.

I’m not much of a baker or a cook (thankfully Huff the Hubs is easy to please) so I try not to steer toward recipes that take a lot of time and effort.

I wasn’t sure what to volunteer for. The turkey is my sister’s area of expertise, the sides are mostly done by my mom, and my aunt and Grammy have the pie front covered. I’m not really a fan of Thanksgiving food. I mean, yeah, turkey’s great, but I’m sort of like Chandler in that aspect. What I do love, is sweets.

Thanks to Pinterest, I found a lovely sweet recipe for White Chocolate Snack Mix that looked SUPER easy! I didn’t even have to turn on my oven!

I did what the instructions said and literally, 10 minutes later, I have this cooling on my stove top:

I’m testing it. Yeah, that’s it.

Now, I didn’t use plain old M&M’s. Thanks to the day after Halloween clearance at Wally World, I got some candy corn M&M’s for crazy cheap and Reese’s Pieces! I’m telling you, this stuff is like crack. Seriously. I may need to go to rehab for a White Chocolate Snack Mix Addiction.

As I’ve told you before, working from home has its upsides and its downsides. One downside—especially when you live in an apartment—is that you see all of the nooks and crannies of your living space that haven’t been cleaned like they should.

One such place is our oven.

Before Huff the Hubs moved in, we cleaned the apartment top to bottom. We cleaned the bathroom, scrubbed the toilet, vacuumed, dusted, disinfected, and the place smelled like Clorox for a week. The one place I didn’t clean? The oven.

Some people may be saying: “Ew!” and others may say, “I’ve lived in my house for twenty years and never cleaned the inside of the oven.” To the former I say, bite me and to the latter, I welcome you as a friend.

So for today’s Try It Tuesday, I figured I’d do something useful (not that nail art and pumpkin doughnuts aren’t useful) and use a Pinterest find to clean the nasty oven.

Apparently, all you need is ¼ cup baking soda and water and your oven will be clean in minutes.

Here’s my oven before:

Pretty sure this has never been cleaned.

This is the pasty goo:

And 30 minutes later:

So fresh and so clean, clean.

It definitely works! Next time though, I think I’ll use a tad more water and maybe let it set for a little bit longer. I had to really scrub off some of the caked on grease with a scouring pad. But this is a great non-toxic way to clean your oven!

They are the responsible older sibling to the awesome and carefree Saturday and Sunday. Mondays just can’t wait to suckerpunch us all with an annoying wake up call before the sun rises and a stressful trek to work.

Thankfully, there’s awesome blogs, ahem, to help you get through it all.

I’m sure you’ve all heard the news: Hostess is going out of business. If you’re like me, you’re reaction was something like this:

Why, Hostess, why?!

But, don’t digress yet, Twinkie lovers. There may be hope on the horizon! According to the Los Angeles Times, at a bankruptcy court hearing Judge Robert Drain persuaded Hostess to attend mediation with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International union leaders. Hopefully this will preserve 18,000 jobs AND kept your Ding Dongs safe (he he he…).

Did you watch the American Music Awards? Don’t feel bad, I didn’t either. But, apparently those that watched got a real treat! Korean singer, PSY of Gangnam Style fame, performed lip-synched and danced to his hit and then brought out a special guest….MC Hammer.

“Hey, William Hung, when do I get paid for this?”

I’m glad MC could take time from his, um, his uh….What’s he doing nowadays? Anyway, glad he got work for the night.